Scroby Sands: Investigation into wind turbine fire 'may take weeks'

The turbine is part of the Scroby Sands offshore wind farm

It could take weeks to determine the cause of a fire on an offshore wind turbine, its owner has said.

The blaze at the Scroby Sands wind farm 1.5 miles (2.5km) off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk started on Tuesday morning and self extinguished hours later.

RWE, the German company that owns the site, said a team had already started removing fire debris at low tide.

The majority of turbines at the wind farm are back in operation.

Chris Smith, the first manager at Scroby Sands wind farm when it was commissioned in 2004, said; "These types of fires are extremely rare.

"I can only think of two similar fires across the UK in the past.

"When something like this happens, you can only watch as the fire burns out."

The fire could be seen by people on the beach at Hemsby

RWE confirmed on Tuesday that no-one was working on the turbine at the time and that all personnel at the site had been accounted for following an evacuation.

It said the majority of damage was caused to the nacelle - the enclosure at the top of the tower which housed the generating components - and that it may take weeks to determine the cause of the blaze.

Investigators could not assess the damage until it was safe to do so, the company added.

"An electrical fault is the most likely cause," Mr Smith added. "There's a lot of electrical components in those things and electrical items are the most likely things to generate heat."

The majority of the damage was caused to the nacelle - the enclosure at the top of the tower which houses the generating components

RWE said the wind farm was now operational but that six turbines - connected to the damaged one via an electrical cable - would remain out of action until next week.

Ana Musat, executive director of policy and engagement at RenewableUK, said: "There's a lot of work that goes in on a regular basis to stress test the equipment and ensure that we install really good quality components.

"So, of course, everyone is working really hard to ensure that we have as few incidents like this as possible and that we can learn any lessons from this particular one."

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) also said it was liaising with RWE, the local authority and environmental stakeholders, to ensure an appropriate clean-up operation was carried out.

It added that a local navigation warning had also been issued to keep vessels away from the affected area.

RWE said its 30 turbines at Scroby Sands had an installed capacity of 60 megawatts and was able to power more than 48,000 households.